Tuesday, October 05, 2004

By Betty; What Do I Do Now

I was sitting in my recliner chair holding my daughter, who was 6 months old at the time. It was a nice day in Sarasota, Florida, as I had the windows open and you could hear the birds singing and children playing outside.

I started to notice something strange with my body that day. I had felt numbness with both of my legs but it had continued up to the middle of my back. I also noticed numbness on the side of face and across my forehead. This was very weird!

I had a house warming party to host that night so I couldn’t think too much more about it. I did notice that when I walked on the cold floor, barefoot, that my feet would hurt…A LOT! This was definitely not normal! I told Sam I had to see the doctor to check this out.

We had our party that night and we did talk to our friends about what was going on but we made light of it. After all, how can you explain mystery symptoms when there is no reason for them?

I went to my general doctor and went through the whole story again with him, where I was and what I did. He didn’t have a clue as to what was going on. The one good thing he did do was referring me to another doctor.

I was not really worrying at this point that I had something that couldn’t be fixed! Off I went to the new doctor. He did his thing and ran all kinds of tests in his office. I do remember one test he did that I thought was very strange. I was sitting on his table and he was moving my big toe up and down. I had my eyes closed and he kept asking me to tell him when he had moved my toe up or down. Well, I never felt him move my toe up or down. I had failed his test…he had been moving my toe!

Sam had told me later, he really didn’t move it much and that was why I couldn’t feel it but I was to learn the real reason very soon. The doctor wanted me to check into the hospital to have further testing done. I had 3 children by then so we had to make arrangements for them as Sam had a job too. Things were squared away and I went into the hospital.

I had the usually battery of tests for the time, a spinal tap, blood tests, a cat scan. After all was done I got my final report. The doctor came into my room and told me I had MS. I just looked at him and said OK. Nothing else was said. The doctor left and I reached over and picked up the phone and called Sam. I told him on the phone what the doctor had told me -- I had MS. Sam was silent. I also told him I could go home the next day.

It didn’t sink in for me until a week later, after I was home. What do I do now?